A Sure-fire Domain for Advertising: Where the Eye Goes, the Ad Goes

Ads should be placed where the eyes naturally go. Take the exposed thighs of young women in mini skirts, for example, which happen to be the landing point for many a wandering eye in Japan. In theory, if you were to paste an advertisement on such a thigh, there’s a high chance that advertisement would be noticed. If the girl is wearing knee-high socks, even better as it creates a sort of erotic frame around the ad. In fact, we would go so far as to say the space on a girl’s thigh between her mini skirt and socks is the perfect advertising space!

Japan actually has a name for this premium space—zettai ryouiki, or “absolute territory”— and there is actually an advertising service that allows women to rent out their own “absolute territory” to advertisers. It’s called Absolute Territory PR, and the number of women participating in it are increasing by the day.

So what’s the attraction for young women to bare their thighs in the name of advertising?

The way the system works is that participating women get their thighs stamped with an ad and go about the business of their usual day. An obvious prerequisite is that they wear a short skirt or shorts so that the stamp can be seen. As long as the ad is showing on their leg for eight hours a day or more, they’ve upheld their side of the bargain.

As proof of their work, participants must also have their pictures taken, thighs in the forefront, and post them to their own Facebook, Twitter or another other social network. After that, they are paid a part of the advertising fee. Sounds like a fine way to earn a little cash while getting your sexy on, right?

Many Japanese women think so. Since the launch of Absolute Territory PR in July 2012, the number of participants has been growing consistently. Currently 1,300 women have registered their thighs as billboard space. Initially in the first days of business, there were 100 members. The registered numbers of women grew, and continue to grow at a rate of about 10 new registrations per day.

Eichi Atsumi, a spokesperson at the company running the service, says, “We hope registered members will have fun taking part in this.” The only guidelines that have to be met to get the job are that the registered person be connected to at least more than 20 people on some SNS and that they be over 18 years old.

The idea is that because you will be showing off your thighs to all your friends on Facebook, you will make an extra effort to look your best, and in the process make yourself more fashion conscious. And the more fashionable you are, the better your absolute territory—and the advertisement occupying it— will appear.

The ads the women have had stuck to their thighs up until now have been very attractive. Even the world-famous rock band Green Day has employed the service to promote the Japan release of their new CD, ¡Uno!

RocketNews24 also tried out a bit of absolute territory advertising with the help of three women: Ms. Anna Tachibana and Ms. Mari Watanabe of the heavy metal pop idol unit Alice Juban, and Ms. Erina Kamiya of the cyber gothic group Alice Project Steamgirls. We got the girls to stamp our logo on their thighs and stand for about 30 minutes in front of Shibuya Station, and they succeeded in drawing quite a bit of attention in that short period of time.

Men in particular looked cautiously, as if not sure that it was alright to gaze so openly at the women’s thighs. This time there were three women, but think of all the attention we would get if there had been 10 women, or 100 women? The larger the scale, the more attention we would get. This would be a good attraction for local events, openings and good PR for promoting an area, at least for men. Japanese men will get bloody noses and foreign men will drool!

With the busy Christmas season upon us there are many chances for this perfect advertising domain to take effect. If you are interested in being a part of it by baring your thighs then sign up! The possibilities for this promotion are endless. If your thighs have what it takes, then climb on board and enjoy being a part of the campaign!

Anna Tachibana, Mari Watanabe, and Erina Kamiya, the three who helped us out with their wonderful thigh domains.

[…] line with prefecture’s brand image.” With “thigh advertising,” a new method of marketing gaining traction in Japan, young ladies wearing miniskirts or short shorts parade around town with promotional stickers […]